The Riverside Murder

Directed: Albert Parker.
Script: Selwyn Jepson and Leslie Landau.
Film Editing: Reginald Beck.
Art Direction: Ralph W. Brinton.
Sound Department: John Cox.

Basil Sydney - Inspector Winton
Judy Gunn - Claire Harris
Alastair Sim - Sergeant McKay
Tom Helmore - Jerome
Ian Fleming - Sanders
Reginald Tate - Perrin

Humdrum quota-quickie based on "Les Six Hommes Morts" (Editions du Masque) by André Steeman, in which a female reporter helps an inspector solve the deaths of four financiers on the eve of a group share-out. This average crime programmer is chiefly notable for Alastair Sim's film debut, in a role originally conceived as a Cockney, but hastily rewritten to dour Scottish Sergeant 'Mack' McKay.

Robert Norman is shot dead at his River House home. Inspector Winton (Basil Sydney) and his assistant Sergeant McKay (Alastair Sim) arrive on the scene to investigate the murder and discover that it has occurred shortly before an important meeting between a group of four financiers of whom Norman was one. Budding Gazette journalist Claire Haines (Judy Gunn) also manages to talk her way into the house in an attempt to impress her editor by gathering exclusive news on the murder. The other financiers realise they are also in danger when one of their number, Alfred Jerome (Tom Helmore), is murdered. Inspector Winton sets a trap for the killer using one of the financiers as bait, unmasking the killer as one of the group who had earlier faked his own murder.